New Delhi, Jun 11 (IANS): Congress Treasurer Pawan Bansal, General Secretaries KC Venugopal, Harish Rawat and Ajay Maken will lead the protests on Friday at various locations in the national capital against the fuel hike.

The Congress has planned to hold symbolic protests in front of petrol pumps across the country on Friday against the rising prices of petrol and diesel, demanding withdrawal of the hike in fuel prices.

Along with senior leaders, young leaders like Gaurav Gogoi, Devendra Yadav, Delhi in-charge Shakti Singh Gohil will also take part in the protest.

KC Venugopal, in a statement, said: "The BJP government has increased excise duty by Rs 23.87 per litre on petrol and Rs 28.37 on diesel in comparison to the previous UPA government. Because of the wrong policies and hefty taxes, petrol prices in many parts of the country have crossed Rs 100 per litre these days, while diesel prices are on the verge of reaching Rs 100 per litre. Everyone knows about the cascading effect of inflation of petrol and diesel on all kinds of essential commodities."

The wrong priorities and anti-people policies of the BJP government can also be gauged from the fact that in the last 13 months of the Corona epidemic, the prices of petrol and diesel have been increased by an unprecedented Rs 25.97 and Rs 24.18 respectively. In just last 5 months alone, the prices of petrol and diesel have been increased by 44 times, which is a living example of loot from the public by the BJP government at the Centre.